O2 Telefonica Germany and Nokia have aggregated sub-6 GHz spectrum frequencies in an industry-first two-component carrier uplink Carrier Aggregation (CA) trial on a 5G Standalone Network. Nokia has already demonstrated four component carrier downlink 5G Carrier Aggregation and uplink Carrier Aggregation on the millimeter wave spectrum. Nokia is the first to combine sub-6 GHz spectrum with O2 Telefonica Germany to increase uplink throughput.
Carrier Aggregation
Carrier Aggregation enables operators to maximize their spectrum assets to achieve better throughputs and improve subscribers' 5G experience. In addition, by enabling enhanced UL network usability at the cell edge with stronger dependability and lower latency, carrier aggregation will enhance 5G performance.
Also Read: Telefonica Partners Google and Ericsson to Move 5G Core to Cloud
Industrial Use Cases for 5G Uplink Speeds
Mobile operators will be able to enable new industrial use cases for verticals such as the automotive industry and live broadcasts of events and virtual reality experiences for consumers and enterprises, paving the way for the metaverse.
Location of Trial
A trial that utilized O2 Telefonica's live commercial network was held at the company's innovation cluster close to Berlin. Nokia provided solutions from its AirScale portfolio, including Baseband, massive MIMO, and RRH products powered by its Reefshark chipset.
Component Carrier Specification
MediaTek provided its 5G mobile platform using the MediaTek Release-16 M80 modem integrated into the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 flagship chipset. The companies used the combination of a 20 MHz carrier on the 1800 MHz band (n3) and a 70 MHz carrier on the 3.6 GHz band (n78) using Carrier Aggregation technology to achieve a peak throughput of 144 Mbps.
Dr. Ho-Chi Hwang, General Manager of Wireless Communication System and Partnerships at MediaTek, said: “The combination of spectrum frequencies utilizing Carrier Aggregation delivers premium coverage and capacity to mobile subscribers where it is needed. Our new 5G mobile platforms utilizing the M80 modem are fundamental to delivering this achievement and we look forward to continuing to support our industry partners to push new boundaries in the development of 5G.”
Mallik Rao, Chief Technology & Information Officer at O2 Telefonica, said: "With frequency bundling, we will enable our customers to enjoy faster downloads and uploads in our 5G network in the future."
"Carrier Aggregation software complements our high-performance AirScale portfolio, placing Nokia at the forefront of providing technologies that support mobile operators in maximizing radio network efficiencies," said Mark Atkinson, SVP of Radio Access Networks at Nokia.
